Coronavirus updates As it happens (2020-04-11)

Apr 12, 2020

Covid-19: Kwabre East MP Donates To District To Fight Spread

The Member of Parliament for Kwabre East Hon Francisca Oteng Mensah has donated food items worth thousands of Ghana cedis to her constituents to help mitigate the impact of the covid-19 partial lockdown.

The items include rice, oil, tomatoes and PPEs such as hand sanitizers, nose masks and hand gloves.

Apr 12, 2020

Covid-19: Irish Citizens Hold 'Shine Your Light' Campaign To Solidarise With Patients

Scores of Irish citizens and organizations are embarking on a campaign dubbed: Shine Your Light For Hope and Solidarity.

The campaign is in solidarity with people who have lost their lives or those who are battling for their lives due to coronavirus.

Apr 12, 2020

Covid-19: Upper East Region Records 3 More Cases After Contact Tracing

First hand information available to ModernGhana News reveals that three persons have been tested positive to the novel coronavirus in the Upper East Region.

This brings the total number of reported cases to four, the Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has confirmed in a statement.

Apr 12, 2020

[Full Report] University Of Ghana Scientists Make Strides In Tracking Virus Responsible For Coronavirus

UNIVERSITY OF GHANA SCIENTISTS SEQUENCE GENOMES OF NOVEL CORONAVIRUS

Scientists at the University of Ghana have successfully sequenced genomes of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the global COVID-19 pandemic, obtaining important information about the genetic composition of viral strains in 15 of the confirmed cases in Ghana.

Apr 12, 2020

US coronavirus deaths top 20,000 with billions in Easter lockdown

The United States passed the grim milestone of 20,000 coronavirus deaths Saturday as huge swathes of the globe celebrated the Easter holiday weekend under lockdown at home.

The outbreak has now claimed the lives of at least 20,071 people in the US, which leads the world in deaths and in the number of declared infections -- at least 519,453, according to a tally maintained by Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University.

Billions of people were confined to their homes across the world as Easter weekend kicked off. By Filippo MONTEFORTE (AFP)

Apr 11, 2020

Covid 19 -70 Doctors Trained To Support Risk Communication And Public Education

Vodafone Ghana Foundation, through its long standing collaboration with the Ghana Health Service, on Wednesday, April 8, 2020, trained some medical practitioners in the country on relevant disciplines to support government’s risk communication and public education campaign on Covid-19. The practitioners comprised 70 doctors and some supporting staffs.

The training was led by the Leader of the National Risk Communication and Social Mobilization Committee of COVID-19, Dr. DaCosta Aboagye, who doubles as the Director of Health Promotion at the Ghana Health Service.

Apr 11, 2020

COVID-19 Has Exposed Capitalism, Showed Technocracy Is Best—Scientist

A Ghanaian Scientist and Engineer, Dr. Bright Sogbey has noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed Capitalism as a bad system and also showed that technocrats are the best political leaders.

He is, therefore, suggesting that the best economic and business recovery strategy for Ghana after COVID-19, would be to tilt towards partial Socialism and also put scientists and engineers in the top hierarchy of the country’s politics.

Dr. Bright Sogbey

Apr 11, 2020

COVID-19: Nurses And Midwives Association Urges Members To keep Working

The Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA) has called for calm among its members amidst agitations over the lack of incentives and protective equipment in their efforts to play their part in fighting COVID-19.

It had earlier asked its members to leave isolation units if they were not supplied Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) by the government.

Apr 11, 2020

COVID-19: GRASAG UPSA Demands Review Of e-learning Policy

The Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) chapter of the University of Professional Studies (UPSA) has called on management of the school to review its e-learning policy in the wake of the COVID-19 induced shut down of schools.

President Nana Akufo-Addo directed schools in the country to shut down effective Monday, March 16, 2020, to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.

Apr 11, 2020

Covid-19: Family Of Deceased Patient Rejects Test Result

The family of the covid-19 patient who died at the Walewale government hospital in the North East Region have refused to accept the test result which suggested that their son died of the deadly virus.

According to the family, their 19 year-old son was abandoned and neglected by health officials at the Walewale hospital which led to his death and not Covid-19 as speculated.

Ibrahim Alhassan, family spokesperson of the deceased patient.

Apr 11, 2020

Controller Begins Deduction On Salary Donations To Covid-19 Fund

The Acting Controller and Accountant General, Kwasi Kwanning Bosompem, says his outfit has implemented the President and his Vice directives for their three months salaries to be paid to the Covid-19 National Trust Fund.

In a statement, he says the directive by the Chief of Staff, that Ministers and deputy ministers and some appointees of government to have 50% of their three months salaries donated to the fund has been implemented.

Apr 11, 2020

Covid-19: Contact Tracing To Begin In Kpong After First Case

Contact tracing is set to begin in Kpong Township from Sunday, April 12, after the increase of novel Coronavirus cases in the Lower Manya Krobo district .

Seven more persons have tested positive for the Coronavirus disease in the region raising the count to 23.

Apr 11, 2020

COVID-19: WHO Warns Against Early Lifting Of Restrictions

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned countries on Friday to be cautious about lifting restrictions introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus and voiced alarm it was taking hold in Africa.

The United Nations agency would like to see an easing, but at the same time “lifting restrictions could lead to a deadly resurgence,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

Apr 11, 2020

COVID-19: Chiefs, Residents Protest Use Of School As Quarantine Centre At Brafoyaw

Angry Chiefs and people of Brafoyaw, a community in the Central Region, have kicked against the use of Aggrey Memorial Zion Senior High School as an isolation camp for COVID-19 patients.

According to the community, using the school as a facility for COVID-19 patients will endanger the lives of the people living in the community.

Apr 11, 2020

Africans targeted in southern China's second largest city as Covid-19 spreads

Africans in southern China's largest city say they have become targets of suspicion and subjected to forced evictions, arbitrary quarantines and mass coronavirus testing as the country steps up its fight against imported infections.

China says it has largely curbed its COVID-19 outbreak but a recent cluster of cases linked to the Nigerian community in Guangzhou sparked the alleged discrimination by locals and virus prevention officials.

AFP

Apr 11, 2020

BREAKING COVID-19: Cases Hit 408

Ghana's confirmed cases of Coronavirus have shot up to 408, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

Out of the 408 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 205 were reported from the routine surveillance, 88 from enhanced surveillance activities and 115 from travellers under mandatory quarantine in both Accra and Tamale, the GHS said.

Apr 11, 2020

BREAKING The virus particles can travel four meters, or 13 feet, from infected patients

A Chinese study suggested virus particles can travel four meters, or 13 feet, from infected patients, twice the distance many governments recommend as a safe distance.

Apr 11, 2020

Coronavirus can travel 4 metres, twice the current recommended distance between people

A new study examining air samples from hospital wards with COVID-19 patients has found the virus can travel up to 13 feet (four meters) -- twice the distance current guidelines say people should leave between themselves in public.

The preliminary results of the investigation by Chinese researchers were published Friday in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

AFP

Apr 11, 2020

Central Regional Director Of ISD Steps Up COVID-19 Campaign In Kasoa

The Central Regional Director of Information Services Department together with officers from Awutu Senya East has stepped up a campaign on COVID-19 in Kasoa.

The aim was to sensitize residents on the preventive measures and demonstrate to market women on how to wash the hands properly with soap under clean running water.

Apr 11, 2020

Why Africa's coronavirus outbreak appears slower than anticipated

When Africa's first case of coronavirus was detected in Egypt in February, the rest of the continent prepared for the brunt of a pandemic that has engulfed Europe and spread to the United States, infecting more than 1.6 million worldwide.

Health experts warned of the devastation the deadly virus could cause in Africa, where most hospitals are desperately short of equipment and trained staff.

Coronavirus has since spread to 52 African countries, but despite a steady rise in confirmed cases, the continent continues to lag behind the global curve for infections and deaths. By Yasuyoshi CHIBA (AFP)